This article is written by Arunkumar Deshmukh, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.

Blog Day :

3724

Post No. :

14660

Movie Count :

4006

Today’s song is from a resoundingly flop film of its time, Rambaan-48. The film was made by Prakash Pictures of Bhatt Brothers, known for quality films of different Genres. During the early 40s, their Mythological films like Bharat Milap-42 and Ramrajya-43 were extraordinarily successful. Film Rambaan was also directed by Vijay Bhatt-as usual- and the Music Director was Shankar rao Vyas, their favourite. The film story and dialogues were by Mohanlal Dave and Pt. Girish. Lyricists were Pt. Indra, Neelkanth Tiwari and Moti,B.A.( who was actually M.A.). The cast of the film was Prem Adib, Shobhana Samarth, Umakant, Ramsingh, Chandramohan, Amirbai, Leela Mishra and many others.

The lead pair of Prem Adib and Shobhana Samarth had become extremely popular all over the country as Ram and Seeta, after their two films Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya. These two actors came together for the first time in film Industrial India-1938. After this they worked in 11 more films plus one more film Ramayan-54, which was concocted by joining parts of 3 films made by Prakash Pictures on Ram and Seeta. After this film-Rambaan- Prakash films focused on social and musical films and made memorable films like Baiju Bawra-52 and Gunj Uthi Shehnai-59.

The stories of Rama and offshoots of Ramayana have always inspired film makers. Mahabharat too did the same. In Hindi language alone, films on Rama stories are around 25 ( not counting obvious other films like Ram aur Shyam, Ram Lakhan or Ram Balram etc.). Practically, in every Indian language and dialects, Nepalese and Sinhalese, Ram films are made. However, the kind of fame, popularity and the Box office returns, that the Film Ram Rajya-43 earned is beyond imagination. Calendars from 1944 to 1950 featured Shobhana and Prem as Ram and Seeta. Wherever these stars went they were mobbed and people used to touch their feet, treating them as Ram and Seeta.

Enthused with this fabulous response, Prakash were planning a third film on Ram and Seeta as a last film in the Trilogy of Ramayan Stories. They waited for a good five years and made Rambaan-48.

Ramayan and Mahabharata are the two major Religious Epics for Indians. Ramayana has been popular and widesread all over the Eastern World. There are in all 301 versions of Ramayana. These include the original Valmiki Ramayan and few other major Indian language Versions like Kamban’s Ramavataram in Tamil and Rangnathan’s Ramayana in Telugu. Then there is Ramayan Manjiri in NE and Bengal version. There is a Jain version too.Besides Ramayana in every Indian language and many dialects with scripts, there are Ramayana Versions in Burma, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thialand, Malaysia, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam and China. All these versions total upto 300 in number. Then what is the 301st version ?

301st is the version of the fertile imagination of the authors of the ” Story Departments” of Indian film companies. Even Prakash Pictures had its own department. The first two films Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya were mostly based on the original Valmiki Ramayan. For film Rambaan-48, however, the Bhatt brothers gave free hand to the story and dialogue writers, in order to include something new, for which the same audience will come to the theatres. This is where things went wrong. The novel changes and additions that Mohanlal Dave and Pt. Girish brought into the Ramayana story were ridiculous, which were rejected out right and were resented by the Indian viewers. The Cinematic liberty taken for a film is one thing and twisting and distorting an accepted historical story by the millions over centuries of generations is another thing.

I am sure, if only Valmiki was to watch this film, he would have jumped from Everest or taken a Samadhi immediately ! Let us see what happened in the film, after all.

First and foremost, Shobhana Samarth was 8 month’s pregnant during the shooting of this film ( with her third daughter Chatura ) and it showed everytime she came on the screen. Could they not wait for another 6 months ? As such she was nearing her middle age-at 33 years- and it was obvious to everyone. Secondly, Prem Adib-two years younger than Shobhana, as it is- had put on lot of fat and seeing his open body with loose muscles, almost double chin and a face without freshness was a punishment for the senses.

The blue eyed handsome Chandramohan did the role of Ravan in this film. His characterisation of the role was made very ridiculous. Every now and then and in every scene, his ‘Taqia kalam” was rolling eyes like a drunken person and shouting ” Main Kaun “. Then giving the reply himself ” Main Ravan “. Actually, according to Valmiki and everyone else, Ravan was a very learned Brahmin, a peerless scientist, Veena player, a scholar on Vedas and a staunch devotee of lord Shiv. To make him look like a clown was very sad and disappointing indeed.

Shoorpnakha was actually married early, but her husband was killed by Ravan, in a battle. Ravan had made her a queen of Dandkaranya. In the film, her Swayamwar is shown. She rejects everyone and remains unmarried. This was undigestible to moviegoers who were familiar with the story of Ramayan.

Shabari katha is similarly distorted. In Valmiki Ramayana, after meeting Ram,Seeta and laxmana and giving them half eaten fruit, Shabri self immolates and goes to Heaven. In the film she first meets the three and after Seeta is abducted meets Ram again to inform him that she saw Ravan carrying Seeta in his plane. She also introduces Ram to all the Vanar leaders-Sugreev, Hanuman, Jambuwant etc.

There were many such New Discoveries, thanks to the writers, in this film. I remember in 1950, when this film came to Hyderabad, I had accompanied some old relatives and my Grandfather to this film. After coming back all were very angry. I don’t remember what exactly they had said, but I wrote in my diary ” the film was boring”.

Baburao Patel of Film India was not one to miss such an opportunity to pull up the director and producer. In the February 1949 issue, he had devoted three pages to the film, mostly tearing it apart, accusing the producers of tarnishing the Hindu religion. He only appreciated actor Umakant, who traditionally did the role of Laxman ( He did this role in 7 films in all) as a good and suitable actor. he even suggested him to be promoted as Ram, in their next film.

There is a name Ramsingh, in the film’s cast. The actor Ramsingh’s name is not very famous or well known, but in his times, he did Hero’s and Villain’s role in many films. Information about him was not available anywhere on the Internet till today. For the first time his information is appearing here today.His entry in films and life story is very interesting.

During the 1942 ‘Quit India’ movement, there was a riot in Allahabad. Police opened fire and along with several other people, Secretary of All University Students Union also was killed. Fearing a backlash from college students, the Government closed down all colleges and vacated Hostels. Two persons became homeless. One was Ramchandra Dwivedi- who later on became well known as Kavi Pradeep- and the other was Ramsingh- who became an actor.

After the riots, instead of informing his family about his welfare, Ramsingh left for Bombay and then to Poona, to become an actor. He was tall,fair and handsome. V.Shantaram hired him as an assistant in the studio. His family thought that he must have been killed in the riots and grieved, when he never returned.

One day one of the villagers came to their house and told excitedly, that he had seen a Hindi film and in that film, an actor looked exactly like Ramsingh. The family went to the town and saw the film. Lo and behold ! there he was. Looking just like Ramsingh. Anxiously a group of elders reached Prabhat Studio in Poona and inquired. The officials brought out their own son- Ramsingh before them !! Everyone was happy. It seems he did not contact his household just to avoid the Police investigations, as he too was an active participant in the agitation.

Ramsingh was born into a rich Zamindar family of village Ishanpur in Pratapgarh (U.P.), in 1920. After graduating, while doing his M.A. he joined films. His first film was Ramshastri-44, then came Chand-44, Lakhrani-45 and Hum ek hain-46….all Prabhat films. While in Prabhat, he became friendly with Dev Anand and Guru Dutt. In his later years, they gave him roles in their almost every film..

In his other films, Ramsingh worked with Heroine Ranjit Kumari ( real name Ranjit Kaur), to whom he got married later on. He was already married while in school and also had 3 children from his first wife. From the second marriage he got 4 children.

Ramsingh played Hero, Villain and character roles in 69 films. Some of his notable films were, besides 4 Prabhat films, Gaon-47, Shaheed-48, Khidki-49, Aparadhi-50 ( He was the Hero, opposite Madhubala), Sargam-50, Sangram-50, Shrimati ji-52, Jaal-52, Baaz-53 etc etc. In his later career, he only got insignificant roles in B and C grade films and Mythologicals. His last film was Sati Sulochana-69. ( 2 more films Veer Chhatrasaal-71 and Mere Bhaiya-72 were released after he left films).

Ramsingh returned to his native place with Ranjit Kumari and children in 1970 and started doing Agriculture. The U.P. Chief Minister H.N.Bahuguna was his classmate and a very good friend. Ramsingh approached him. Bahuguna, to help him, immediately established ” U.P. Film Corporation ” and made Ramsingh its Chairman. However, due to political turmoil in the country, Bahuguna left congress and joined Congress For Democracy, against Indira Gandhi. As a result the film corporation was wound up and Ramsingh returned to the fields again.

Ramsingh started drinking, against medical advise and died in 1984, in his village.

Shankar Rao Vyas gave a very sweet and melodious music. Today’s song, particularly, is the best of the 3 songs which I have heard. This song is sung by Shankar Dasgupta.

Born in 1927 in Bengal, Shankar Dasgupta started singing from childhood. He was a trained singer. In 1946,he got a break with Anil Biswas in his film Milan-46. His first song itself became very popular.

Then he sang in films like Anjana, Didi, Girl’s school, Jeet, Aahuti,Izzat, Do Raha etc. He sang about 63 songs in 39 films. he gave music to 4 films, Sadma, Sheeshe ki deewar, Hotel and Pehli mulaaqaat.

He assisted Anil Biswas and Jaidev for many years. He did work on TV and in News reviews too. He settled in England after retirement,but was active on TV there too.

On one of his routine visits to India in 1992, he met with a tragic accident on a Railway station in Bombay, on 23-1-1992 and died on the spot.

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4 Responses to "Uthh Lakhan Lal priy bhai"

“I am sure, if only Valmiki was to watch this film, he would have jumped from Everest or taken a Samadhi immediately!”
well said. but then this is true about so many stories that movies change to suit so-called audience taste, to keep-up with the times and/or Indianize a story
so much for cinematic-liberty. remember how R.K Narayan was disillusioned with “Guide”? 🙂

Peevesie’s Mom ji,
I repeat what I have written above ” The Cinematic liberty taken for a film is one thing and twisting and distorting an accepted historical story by the millions over centuries of generations is another thing.”
Twisting a novel or an original story for a commercial cinema is understandable, but here the Ramayana story is an emotional and religious matter to every Indian. It is not just a story but Values are attached to it. Obvious and ridiculous imaginary changes to what we have been hearing for a lifetime is certainly not acceptable to anyone. I do not think the changes suited the ” audience tastes ” in this case.
However, everyone can have own opinions !
-AD

True, Obvious and ridiculous imaginary changes to what we have been hearing for a lifetime is certainly not acceptable to anyone.
I saw one more distorted story today. I was seeing the premnath- madhubala “Saaqi”. There are so many glitches I was banging my head. Have seen only 1 hour 15 minutes till now.
How was the reception to it all those years ago. Please enlighten?